Miriam Ruth Gutman Braverman (1920-2002) was an American librarian.[1] She attended library school at Pratt Institute.[1] She was part of the socialist movement in the 1940s and 1950s.[1] In the 1960s she set up libraries in Freedom Schools in Mississippi, and she worked at the Brooklyn Public Library beginning in 1964.[1] She was also one of the founders of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table, which was founded in 1969.[2][1] She wrote a history of young adult services at three public libraries, titled Youth, Society and the Public Library (1979).[3] She was a leader in the fight which led to the American Library Association condemning the Vietnam War.[4] She taught at the School of Library Services of Columbia University (from which she earned her doctorate) until 1982.[1] In 1982 she conducted a study which led to the creation of the Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center in Queens.[1] She was a member of the Progressive Librarians Guild, and joined their Coordinating Committee during the last year she was alive.[1]

The Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize is named after her.[5]

On Friday, December 8, 2006 Major Owens of New York praised her on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.[4] Owens referred to her as a “Great Point-of-Light for all Americans…a great humanitarian as well as a Librarian…, who understood that the power of information was continually escalating… as an advocate in the classroom and a fighter on the street.”[6]

Bibliography

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  • Teenage reading and the public library (1963)
  • Public library and the young adult : the development of the service and its philosophy in the New York Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, and Enoch Pratt Free Library (1974)
  • Young adults : not too distant, not too dim (1976)
  • Youth, society, and the public library (1978)
  • Langston Hughes, from experiment to institution : final report (1982)
  • The Classical shape : decorated pottery of the ancient world (1984)

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Miriam Braverman". Progressive Librarians Guild. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  2. ^ "Social Responsibilities Round Table; Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT)". Ala.org. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  3. ^ Lesley S. J. Farmer (30 December 2011). Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States. Scarecrow Press. pp. 290–. ISBN 978-0-8108-8226-3.
  4. ^ a b Congressional Record, Volume 152, Part 18, December 7, 2006 to December 27, 2006. Government Printing Office. pp. 298–. GGKEY:S00DZGT3FYP.
  5. ^ Alfred Kagan (26 March 2015). Progressive Library Organizations: A Worldwide History. McFarland. pp. 256–. ISBN 978-0-7864-6400-5.
  6. ^ Jackson, Andrew P. (2016). "Memories of Dr. Miriam R.G. Braverman (1920-2002)". Progressive Librarian. 44: 120–123.